Federation infighting, court battles and 2 new world champions: Indian boxing's conflicted year
New Delhi (PTI): Indian boxing endured a deeply unsettling 2025 with the administrators locked in bitter courtroom battles before the men and women who actually exchange blows for a living salvaged the year through the emergence of two new world champions in Jaismine Lamboria and Minakshi Hooda.
The year began on an unusually dull note with boxers absent from most international competition in the aftermath of a medal-less Olympic campaign.
Behind the quiet, however, the sport was being consumed by internal strife within the Boxing Federation of India (BFI).
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Selection plans were stalled, national championships were disrupted, national coaching positions lay vacant and overseas exposure took a hit as rival camps within the federation locked horns, leaving athletes caught in the crossfire.
Election chaos and court battles
The crisis centred on the BFI elections, which was due before February 3 but ended up repeatedly delayed.
This also prompted the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to appoint an ad-hoc committee to run the federation. The move was termed illegal by the BFI and was later stayed by the Delhi High Court.
Soon allegations of abuse of power, financial misconduct and relentless turf wars inside the federation surfaced.
The Ajay Singh-led BFI suspended secretary general Hemanta Kalita and treasurer Digvijay Singh over alleged financial irregularities, triggering legal challenges.
Amid the turmoil, former sports minister Anurag Thakur was backed to challenge Singh for the president's post, but his candidature was rejected after a controversial March 7 directive, issued by Singh, that ruled him ineligible for the electoral college.
Thakur's faction -- the Himachal Pradesh Boxing Association -- approached the courts as did the Delhi unit, whose chief's name was omitted from the electoral college on similar ground.
Both challenged the legitimacy of the directive.
What followed was a prolonged and ugly power struggle. The mud-slinging reached such a point that even the Returning Officer resigned, citing a smear campaign against him.
The turmoil had direct consequences on the boxers. The senior women's National Championships, which were to be held in November 2024, were repeatedly postponed.
They were eventually held under a cloud of controversy in March. Several state units, including that of Madhya Pradesh and Assam, barred their boxers from participating.
The tussle forced Tokyo Olympics bronze-medallist Lovlina Borgohain, who hails from Assam, to withdraw her name.
World Boxing, the sport's global governing body, stepped in to form an interim committee, appointing Singh as chief, to oversee the BFI's affairs as the elections continued to be delayed due to legal wrangling.
Under the World body's order, the interim committee amended the BFI constitution and the March 7 directive was made a clause, prompting rival factions to once again seek judicial intervention.
The deadlock broke in August when Singh was re-elected BFI president for a third consecutive term despite ongoing legal cases.
But both the IOA and the Sports Ministry refused to send observers for the election, raising questions over its legitimacy.
Even after the new body was elected, dissent has simmered. Some state units claim to have moved a no-confidence motion against Singh, challenging the validity of the amended constitution.
Singh dismissed the claims, stating that several of the same members had also signed documents reaffirming their confidence in him.
Two new world champions
Once the focus returned to competition, Indian boxers found their feet in the ring.
New national coaches were appointed -- Dharmender Yadav for the men's team and D Chandralal for the women's side.
The Indian contingent returned with respectable results from the Brazil and Kazakhstan legs of the World Boxing Cup.
However, participation across the events was limited as World Boxing, having secured IOC recognition only earlier in the year, worked on setting an international calendar.
The standout moment of the year came at the World Championships in Liverpool, where Jaismine (57kg) and Minakshi (48kg) clinched gold medals.
Pooja Rani (80kg) and Nupur Sheoran (80+kg) added to the glory with a bronze and silver respectively, reaffirming India's growing strength in women's boxing.
The picture was not entirely rosy though.
Established stars like Nikhat Zareen, who returned after a long injury lay off, and Borgohain failed to deliver the performances that were expected of them.
It is also worth noting that, barring Jaismine's title, the other podium finishes came in non-Olympic weight categories, where the competitive field was comparatively thinner.
In Jaismine, however, India appears to have found a boxer with a genuine shot at Olympic glory in 2028.
Consistent across the season, she defeated Paris Olympics silver-medallist Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the Worlds' final.
The men, on the other hand, endured a humbling low at the Worlds, returning without a single medal for the first time in 12 years.
But there were signs of promise.
Youngster Abhinash Jamwal showed he could thrive at the elite level after stepping out of Shiva Thapa's shadow, while Sachin Siwach and Pawan Bartwal also displayed potential.
India hosted the much-hyped season-ending World Cup finals where the hosts enjoyed overwhelming success, finishing with a record haul of 20 medals, including nine gold.
But it was not reflective of a great performance as the draws were thin, the top ranked boxers skipped the tournament while in heavyweight categories podiums were awarded just for participation.
Soon after the event, the return of former high-performance director Santiago Nieva, this time as women's team head coach, was announced, marking the start of an interesting new chapter.
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Constitution amendment bill defeat was BJP’s first embarrassment in Parliament: Margaret Alva
Bengaluru (PTI): Senior Congress leader Margaret Alva on Monday said that the constitution amendment bill's defeat in the Lok Sabha on April 17 was the first embarrassment faced by the BJP-led government in Parliament.
She also alleged that the BJP has no real concern regarding women’s reservation.
The opposition INDIA bloc defeated the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill that sought to facilitate the implementation of women's reservation by expanding the strength of the Lok Sabha, apart from making changes to delimitation.
"This is the first embarrassment and defeat faced by the NDA government in the Lok Sabha," the former Governor of Gujarat and Rajasthan said in a press conference here.
According to her, the women’s reservation has been under discussion since the time of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
"During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, a 14-member committee was formed, and I was appointed as its chairperson. We prepared a report after studying what needed to be done to enhance the dignity of women across 12 sectors. This was submitted to the government in 1989,” Alva, 84-year-old veteran Congress leader, said.
She said political empowerment for women was emphasised in that report, without which, empowerment in any other sphere is not possible.
“Many people in Parliament used to question me — should we vacate seats for women and stay at home cooking? Why insist on this? Has anyone written these seats in your name? This debate has been ongoing since 1975,” Alva explained.
The Congress leader said Rajiv Gandhi had introduced 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies.
“At that time, all opposition parties united and defeated the Bill,” she pointed out.
Again, during the tenure of former Prime Minister late P V Narasimha Rao, the 33 per cent reservation Bill in local bodies was passed.
“It was the Congress party that first introduced women’s reservation. Now they are falsely accusing us of being anti-women,” Alva charged.
In 2023, the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed with much fanfare, but it was not immediately implemented.
According to her, a condition was imposed for its implementation that it would be enforced based on census data.
"Once it is in the statute book, what is preventing its implementation? Two years for the census and another two years for delimitation — this means it cannot be implemented by 2029. It was not given in 2024, and there is no possibility even in 2029," Alva charged the BJP-led government at the Centre.
The Congress leader said the BJP is saying that the Bill can be implemented based on the 2011 Census, but when the same suggestion was made in 2023, the BJP rejected it.
On increasing the Lok Sabha seats by 50 per cent, she sought to know the basis for it.
“Where did this (idea) come from? Whose advice was taken? Was it decided by the RSS? Or ordered by a court?” Alva asked.
The former union minister said the Constitution amendment bill, which was defeated on April 17 appears to favour certain North Indian states.
“We pay taxes, but they receive greater benefits and allocations. If seats are increased by 50 per cent based on their calculations, we would get only 14 additional seats, while they would get 40. How is this fair?” she questioned.
While 298 members voted in support of the bill in Lok Sabha, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the bill required 352 votes for a two-third majority.
According to the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to "operationalise" the women's reservation act before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats were also to be increased in state and Union territory Assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
